I went through this recently. I had moved out-of-state to take a job that sounded very promising. In short order, we had someone in the office pass away, and I had to change my role dramatically, just to compensate. "Temporarily." Then there was a restructuring as they laid off two more team members. I would have to shoulder their work, too. Again, "temporarily." After more than a year, I was run down, frustrated, and would get angry at the mere mention of work. I had an honest discussion with my boss, saying in the most positive terms possible that I liked the company, but wanted out of this role. He was sympathetic, but when we brought it up with his boss, he got angry. I was laid off a week later, via phone call, on an afternoon I had taken off to go to the doctor.
That job, despite how much I despised it, had afforded me a very comfortable lifestyle. I had a brand new, downtown, luxury apartment, walking distance to work, to the tune of about $2,700/month. I had student loan payments around $1,300/month. I had a $250/month cell phone bill that work was reimbursing me for. And on top of it, Obama car was just kicking in, and I had to buy insurance on the healthcare exchange with no financial support - there goes another $130/month. So when the flow of income switches off, you get stuck - it's the irony of not having enough money to reduce your biggest expenses. But everyone around you is telling you you're irresponsible for living downtown (even though you can't move), or shopping at Whole Foods (even though it was the ONLY grocery store in walking distance), or taking on such student loan debt (and pretty much every single person born since '85 knows that story). It's so frustrating!
At first I claimed unemployment and dipped into my savings. But unemployment was nowhere near enough money. The work log and mandated workshops were infuriating - go to some local community college and wait for hours with a room full of unskilled workers and broken people, to talk to some know-nothing job counselor who can only point you towards dead-end, minimum wage jobs. Apply to X jobs per week, regardless of what they were, just to fill up the work log. And remember, we think you're a filthy, dirty scammer for taking this pittance paid for by your former employer's insurance, so we might audit you at any time . . . even though our audits uncover about seven cents of fraud for every dollar we spend on them. And if you had a question? It would take weeks to get any response from the unemployment office.
Now couple all of that with the constant, silent rejection from employers for jobs your mostly overqualified for. That was the lowest point in my life, and honestly, I thought about suicide daily. And I couldn't afford to go see a doctor or get any sort of help or medication. My wife is a saint for having helped me through it. But eventually, I gave up on unemployment. I lost my work log (they wanted it hand-written, on their form), so when I called (and waited a week to hear back from) the unemployment office to ask what to do, they threatened to audit me and basically accused me of lying. So I stopped claiming unemployment.
The funny thing is, while still frustrated at being unemployed, I felt better not having to deal with the whole unemployment process. Sure, I was burning through my savings alarmingly fast, but it was at least a slightly less demeaning experience.
Ultimately I wound up closing out my 401k, using the cash to break my lease and move back home. And while my current job isn't great, and doesn't pay as well, it's better than what I had before.